Abstract
There is a growing interest in flexitarian diets, which has resulted in the commercialisation of new hybrid meat products, containing both meat and plant-based ingredients. Consumer attitudes towards hybrid meat products have not been explored, and it is not clear which factors could affect the success of such products. This study is the first to overview of the UK hybrid meat product market and to explore consumer’s attitudes towards hybrid meat products in 201 online reviews, using tools and techniques of corpus linguistics (language analysis). In the positive reviews, consumers emphasised the taste dimension of the hybrid meat products, seeing them as healthier options with good texture and easy to prepare. The negative reviews related to the poor sensory quality and not to the concept of hybridity itself. Using a multidisciplinary approach, our findings revealed valuable insights into consumer attitudes and highlighted factors to consider to market new hybrid meat products effectively.
Highlights
High levels of meat consumption are associated with perceived health, social and environmental concerns resulting in calls to reduce the quantity of meat we consume [1]
Food choice has been recognised as a complex process that goes beyond sensory properties and involves many factors that can be grouped into the characteristics of the consumer, the product and the specific context in which the choice is made [4]
We explored consumer’s attitudes towards hybrid-meat products in online reviews by utilising tools and techniques of corpus linguistics that allowed quantitative identification of the most frequent words and key terms across larger textual data sets
Summary
High levels of meat consumption are associated with perceived health, social and environmental concerns resulting in calls to reduce the quantity of meat we consume [1]. To achieve a partial substitution of animal proteins in the diet with more sustainable plant proteins, long-term dietary transitions rather than short phases need to be established [2]. Factors related to consumer behaviour, which might limit consumer transition to alternative protein sources, are convenience and minimal cooking skills [5]. It is difficult to fully shift from a meat-centric diet to strict vegetarianism or veganism because of positive beliefs and attachments to meat and meat-centric societal constructs, switching to a flexitarian or semi-vegetarian diet (mainly plant-based, with limited meat consumption) is less strict and can still have a positive impact [6]
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